TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: school shooting

  • Editorial on V-Tech Rampage

    Editorial on V-Tech Rampage

    32 slain, and it’s just an online game to him:

    Here’s a Virginia reporter’s take on the V-Tech Massacre game…

    My urge was to buy a ticket bound for the land Down Under, to kick some Aussie.

    Ryan Lambourn, a 21 -year-old Australian man, has designed an online game. Players walk a gunman through a college-campus bloodbath.

    “V-Tech Rampage” begins with a murder designed to occupy police. You stop to mail a message to NBC after evading cops. Next up, “To Norris Hall so the real fun can begin.”

    “I understand people’s objections… and don’t care,” Lambourn wrote in a posting online, using the online alias PigPEN.

    His online name fits. It’s tough to say what art is, but this slop is hateful porn.

    I played the game to see if Lambourn had anything to say about the tragedy I covered for a terrible week last month. There was no moral, just a path where progress equaled easy murder.

    “I was kinda trying to prove a point with how easy it was,” Lambourn wrote online.

    I’m kinda not buying that.

    The Aussie’s game isn’t the first to make sport of the Blacksburg slayings. A website hosting the game has drawn more than 125,000 visits.

    The same site also features other pieces of Flash animation about Virginia Tech. One is a graphic cartoon of the killings that was posted on April 18 – two days after the massacre.

    That animation, “Virginia Tech Shootout! ” was the work of Karri Esala, 20, of Finland. I asked him what he thought of Lambourn’s game.

    “I think making a game of the shootings this early is in very bad taste,” Esala said, “but that’s how it’s intended to be…. Let’s wait a couple of years and there will be a major movie studio making money on the V-Tech shootings, too.”

    Other offerings at the site include “The Suicide Bomber,” where you play the title character; “Oklahoma City Escapades,” where you play Timothy McVeigh, and “Sniper’s Revenge,” starring you as John Allen Muhammad.

    In Lambourn’s game, it’s easy to spot the reference to Liviu Librescu, the heroic Tech professor who blocked a door from the killer to shield his students while they escaped through second-story windows.

    Librescu was shot and killed. He was 76, a Holocaust survivor. Last month in Blacksburg, I read messages to him at memorials, including: “You saved my best friends…. I will never forget.”

    Lambourn memorializes him with an anti-Semitic remark.

    Curiously, I’ve yet to find a game about the 1996 Port Arthur rampage that left 35 people dead in Australia.

    Too close to home, mate?

    Word.

    I haven’t played the game yet because I wasted most of my tasteless game outrage on SCMRPG. But now, after reading this editorial, I’m definitely going to give it a try over the weekend.

  • Hainstock not coerced says judge

    Hainstock not coerced says judge

    Judge: Hainstock not coerced:

    Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart has ruled that Eric Hainstock was not coerced, nor did he have his Miranda rights “rammed down his throat” by police.

    “The court finds that the officers were careful to make sure that this juvenile understood his rights, could have his parents notified if he wanted them to be notified and a review of the recording disclosed a juvenile who, although he may have had educational shortcomings in certain areas, demonstrated an ability to recognize his rights and to proceed without an attorney or his parents present,” he wrote.

    This trial should be relatively short.

  • Virginia Tech-The Game

    Virginia Tech-The Game

    Yes, I’ve heard about the Virginia Tech game where you get to play as Cho Seung-Hui. I haven’t played it yet, but I have the feeling I’m not going to be as outraged about it as I was about SCMRPG.

    It’s a flash-based game hosted at the bastion of bad taste that is Newgrounds.

    I get the feeling that it’s just some guy being an ass rather than some guy being an ass claiming he’s making an artistic statement.

  • Victim’s family reacts to Jonesboro shooter

    Victim’s family reacts to Jonesboro shooter

    Victim’s family reacts to Mitchell Johnson tape:

    Shannon Wright was the teacher who was killed in the Jonesboro massacre. Her husband, Mitch Wright, had the following reaction to the taped deposition of released gunman Mitchel Johnson.

    “If he would just come clean and say yes i shot these people because i wanted to do this, versus just getting on there and saying i didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” he said.

    “He looks at his self as being a victim to this day he will not take any responsibility for what he did.”

    “Have they been rehabilitated?…have they changed? i think the community would like to know…from what i’ve seen and read…I don’t believe so,” said Wright.

    Take responsibility? That will be the day. School killers who survive and are convicted never take responsibility. In their warped world, they’re the victims. Never mind the fact that Johnson and co-coward Andrew Golden killed 5 people and injured another 10.

    Speaking of Golden, he’s set to be released in less than two weeks on the 25th thanks to a now-closed loophole in Arkansas law that at the time of their convictions that said they could only be held until their 21st birthdays.

    And people wonder why I have no qualms about teen murderers being tried as adults.

  • Hainstock’s rights ‘rammed down his throat’

    Hainstock’s rights ‘rammed down his throat’

    Did alleged Weston shooter know what he was saying?:

    Eric Hainstock’s defense is trying to say that he was not made aware of his rights before giving a statement to police. He basically confessed to killing Principal John Klang while in custody.

    Lohr said before asking any questions, he read with Hainstock a card advising him of three constitutional rights, including his right to remain silent and his right to an attorney. Hainstock initialed each of the points and said he could not afford an attorney, he said.

    Barrett told the court Hainstock began stating his Miranda rights even before the officer went over the card with him.

    “I have the right to remain silent,” she quoted him. “Anything I say can be used against me.”

    In defense arguments, Ricciardi pointed out that investigators knew Hainstock was a year behind in school and has learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Legal precedents have established that law officers interrogating a juvenile have a responsibility to have the child repeat their understanding of their rights back to the officer, and Lohr failed to do that, she said.

    Despite the fact he said he didn’t have the money for an attorney, the investigators did not explain to him how he could have one represent him, Ricciardi said.

    Ricciardi said Feagles’ role in giving the Miranda warning was rushing Hainstock through signing it without giving him time to think.

    “Now you’ve agreed to talk to us, let’s talk,” she characterized Feagles’ words that morning.

    In her final arguments, Barrett said suppression of a defendant’s statement is only appropriate when there is evidence of coercion by police. That did not happen when Hainstock was interviewed by Lohr and Feagles, she said.

    “I don’t think the court will find any improper police pressure or tactics,” Barrett said.

    But Hainstock was an immature and troubled boy in a situation he was not equipped to handle, Ricciardi said.

    “You have two adult detectives in this room with a very young boy,” she said. “This kid has his rights rammed down his throat with no effort to determine if he understood them.”

    If he’s watched enough to TV to know how the Miranda rights are read, I’m sure he’s watched enough to know when it’s time to ‘lawyer up’. The defense team is making this kid out to be a drooling helmet wearing window licker riding the short bus.

    Hainstock is obviously not as stupid as they’re making him out to be. After all, he was able to obtain two guns and, unfortunately, use one of them correctly.

  • Shawn Hainstock’s concern for his son

    Shawn Hainstock’s concern for his son

    ‘Somebody would kill him’:

    Shawn Hainstock, the father of Weston High School gunman Eric Hainstock, is showing concern for his son…

    Shawn Hainstock made no secret of his tears Thursday after a Sauk County Circuit Court hearing for his 16-year-old son, Eric, who is charged with killing the principal of Weston School in September.

    “I’m concerned (Eric) might say the wrong thing (in an adult prison) and somebody would hurt him,” Shawn Hainstock said, tears in his eyes. “Somebody would kill him, and that would be that.”

    In his first public interview since the shooting, Shawn Hainstock said he visits his son in the Sauk County Jail every day or two. “He kind of breaks down and cries a lot,” he said.

    Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart’s decision last month that the younger Hainstock be tried as an adult was a “tragedy,” Hainstock said. “My heart’s been tore out,” he said. “That just about killed me.”

    “Nobody knows him like we do,” Shawn Hainstock said. “They don’t realize how loving a boy he is. He can be saved.”

    But he said his son is “getting railroaded.”

    The reason this is so interesting is that the defense is alleging that one of the reasons Eric Hainstock killed John Klang was because Eric Hainstock was abused by his father. At one point, Eric Hainstock was even removed from the house by the state but begged to be returned.

    This leads me to believe one of two things. Either the alleged abuse wasn’t as bad as the defense is making it out to be, or that Shawn Hainstock is a hypocritical son of a bitch. Whatever one it is remains to be seen.

  • Bartley tries to withdraw plea

    Bartley tries to withdraw plea

    Kenneth Bartley seeks to withdraw guilty plea in school shootings:

    Just when you thought this story was over.

    Campbell County High School shooter Kenny Bartley previously pleaded guilty to the shooting death of Assistant Principal Ken Bruce and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Now his attorney is trying to appeal the plea on the grounds that Bartley’s parents did not consent to the plea. Since Bartley was charged as an adult, I don’t see what that has to do with anything.

    Bartley’s attorney better be careful what he wishes for. If Bartley goes to trial, he could get more than 45 years.

  • Rocori lawsuit dismissed

    Rocori lawsuit dismissed

    Judge tosses lawsuit over Rocori deaths:

    A wrongful death lawsuit against the Rocori school district in Minnesota and against the father of a school shooter has been dismissed, but not because the case didn’t have merit.

    Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins were gunned down by John Jason McLaughlin. 15-year-old McLaughlin was sentenced to life in prison last year.

    The families of the victims filed the suit, claiming negligence by the school and by McLaughlin’s father.

    However, the case was dismissed on what I consider the smallest of technicalities…

    Todd County District Court Judge Jay. D. Carlson dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the attorneys representing the Rollins and Bartell families had not complied with rules governing proper filing of civil lawsuits. Specifically, Carlson ruled that those attorneys failed to include their Minnesota address and that they improperly filed the lawsuit on behalf of the parents, rather than the trustees for each of the slain students.

    And people wonder why the court system is so jammed up.

    There is reason to believe that the lawsuit can be refiled.

  • Jonesboro gunman sued

    Jonesboro gunman sued

    On tapes, Jonesboro shooter explains, apologizes:

    Jonesboro gunman Mitchell Johnson is being sued in a wrongful death suit by the families of his victims. In a taped deposition, he’s trying to make himself out to be the victim. He’s even trying to lay all the blame on the other gunman, Andrew Golden.

    Mitchell insists the event was fellow shooter Andrew Golden’s idea.

    He repeatedly says no one was supposed to get hurt, just scared.

    “I was told that he was tired of people messing with him, and he was going to scare people. He was going to prove a point that he’s not a pushover, and he asked me to help him obtain to obtain a vehicle to get to and from where he needed to go. And that was supposed to be that only,” he said.

    “That was what?” an attorney asked in the deposition.

    “That was supposed to be my involvement in all of this,” Johnson responded.

    Instead, four students and a teacher were shot and killed and eleven people were hurt.

    You know you could have said no because that was a stupid idea. But you didn’t, and you took part in the shooting. The only reason you’re out of jail is because of a loophole in Arkansas law at the time regarding juvenile offenders.

    And here come the excuses…

    In the taped deposition we learn Mitchell Johnson was sexually abused when he was younger, used marijuana with his father and was a gang member.

    “I didn’t really think all the way through, I didn’t understand that, you know, what I was doing potentially put people in harm, and that if they did get killed, they don’t come back,” he said.

    Even the stupidest of children know that when you shoot somebody with a gun, there is a very good possibility of them “not coming back”.

    Mitchell says he understands why many people think he should still be behind bars. “I ask myself a lot, do I deserve to be free. I don’t think I do, in all honesty, you know?”

    Well, at least we agree on something.

  • Cho never received treatment

    Cho never received treatment

    Cho Didn’t Get Court-Ordered Treatment:

    With the failure of Cho Seung-Hui getting his court-ordered psychiatric treatment, all parties involved are busy playing the blame game.

    “The system doesn’t work well,” said Tom Diggs, executive director of the Commission on Mental Health Law Reform, which has been studying the state mental health system and will report to the General Assembly next year.

    Involuntary outpatient commitments are relatively uncommon in Virginia, officials said, because those in the system know they are not enforced. They are almost an act of faith.

    “When I let the person go outpatient, I always put on the record, ‘I hope I don’t read about you tomorrow in the paper. . . . Don’t make me look like the foolish judge that could have stopped you,’ ” said Lori Rallison, a special justice in Prince William County. “And knock wood, that hasn’t happened. But it can.”

    Cho’s case is a classic example of some of the flaws in the outpatient treatment system.

    Ya think?

    Cho, they said, slipped through a porous mental health system that suffers from muddled, seldom-enforced laws and inconsistent practices. Special justices who oversee hearings such as the one for Cho said they know that some people they have ordered into treatment have not gotten it. They find out when the person “does something crazy again,” in the words of one justice — when they are brought back into court because they are considered in imminent danger of harming themselves or others.

    So if you’re dangerously crazy in Virginia you get a free pass, it seems like.

    A day later, on Dec. 14, 2005, Paul M. Barnett, the special judge, decided that Cho was an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness and ordered him into involuntary outpatient treatment. It is a practice that Terry W. Teel, Cho’s court-appointed lawyer and a special judge himself, said they use “all the time” in Blacksburg. Special justices such as Barnett are lawyers with some expertise and training who are appointed by the jurisdiction’s chief judge.

    Teel said he does not remember Cho or the details of his case. But he said Cho most likely would have been ordered to seek treatment at Virginia Tech’s Cook Counseling Center. “I don’t remember 100 percent if that’s where he was directed,” Teel said. “But nine times out of 10, that’s where he would be.”

    And there, he said, ended the court’s responsibility. The court doesn’t follow up, he said. “We have no authority.”

    And why doesn’t the court have authority? They’re ‘the court’ for crying out loud. If they don’t have the authority, who does?

    That night, Cho e-mailed a roommate saying he might as well kill himself. The roommate contacted police, who brought Cho to the New River Valley Community Services Board, the government mental health agency that serves Blacksburg.

    There, Kathy Godbey examined Cho and found he was “mentally ill and in need of hospitalization,” according to court papers. That was enough to have Cho temporarily detained at Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Clinic in Christiansburg, a few miles from campus, until a special justice could review his case in a commitment hearing.

    New River Valley’s Mike Wade maintained that the community services board’s responsibility ended there.

    I see a lot of responsibility ending, but no responsibility taking. How come no one saw this huge gap in responsibility before? Why did it have to take the deaths of 32 innocent victims?

    “When a court gives a mandatory order that someone get outpatient treatment, that order is to the individual, not an agency,” said Christopher Flynn, director of the Cook Counseling Center. The one responsible for ensuring that the mentally ill person receives help in these sorts of cases, he said, is the mentally ill person. “I’ve never seen someone delivered to me with an order that says, ‘This person has been discharged; he’s now your responsibility.’ That doesn’t happen.”

    Virginia law says community services boards — the local agencies responsible for a range of mental health services — “shall recommend a specific course of treatment and programs” for people such as Cho who are ordered to receive outpatient treatment. The law also says these boards “shall monitor the person’s compliance.”

    When read those portions of the statute, Wade said, “That’s news to us.”

    Oh, that’s just great. The people running the mental health agencies don’t even know the law.

    I’m not saying that forced treatment would or wouldn’t have stopped a madman like Cho Seung-Hui, but we’ll never know until someone tries.

    Ever since the day after Virginia Tech, we’ve heard nothing but how they need to close the loophole in the gun laws. It wasn’t until 3 weeks later that someone besides me was talking about shoring up the mental health laws. That’s just sad.

    I think the problem is that we’re too worried about people being offended. You can’t lock a crazy person up because they might get offended. I’d rather have a crazy person with hurt feelings than a mass of bodies.